Alcestis eBook

Pp. 56-67, ll. 1008-end. This last scene must
have been exceedingly difficult to compose, and some
critics have thought it ineffective or worse.
To me it seems brilliantly conceived and written, though
of course it needs to be read with the imagination
strongly at work. One must never forget the silent
and veiled Woman on whom the whole scene centres.
I have tried conjecturally to indicate the main lines
of her acting, but, of course, others may read it
differently.

To understand Heracles in this scene, one must first
remember the traditional connexion of Satyrs (and
therefore of satyric heroes) with the re-awakening
of the dead Earth in spring and the return of human
souls to their tribe. Dionysus was, of all the
various Kouroi, the one most widely connected with
resurrection ideas, and the Satyrs are his attendant
daemons, who dance magic dances at the Return to Life
of Semele or Persephone. And Heracles himself,
in certain of his ritual aspects, has similar functions.
See J.E. Harrison, Themis, pp. 422 f. and
365 ff., or my Four Stages of Greek Religion,
pp. 46 f. This tradition explains, to start with,
what Heracles—­and this particular sort of
revelling Heracles—­has to do in a resurrection
scene. Heracles bringing back the dead is a datum
of the saga. There remain then the more purely
dramatic questions about our poet’s treatment
of the datum.

Why, for instance, does Heracles mystify Admetus with
the Veiled Woman? To break the news gently, or
to retort his own mystification upon him? I think,
the latter. Admetus had said that “a woman”
was dead; Heracles says: “All right:
here is ‘a woman’ whom I want you to look
after.”

Again, what are the feelings of Admetus himself?
First, mere indignation and disgust at the utterly
tactless proposal: then, I think, in 1061 ff.
("I must walk with care” ... end of speech),
a strange discovery about himself which amazes and
humiliates him. As he looks at the woman he finds
himself feeling how exactly like Alcestis she is, and
then yearning towards her, almost falling in love
with her. A most beautiful and poignant touch.
In modern language one would say that his subconscious
nature feels Alcestis there and responds emotionally
to her presence; his conscious nature, believing the
woman to be a stranger, is horrified at his own apparent
baseness and inconstancy.

P. 57, l. 1051, Where in my castle, etc.]—­The
castle is divided into two main parts: a public
megaron or great hall where the men live during;
the day and sleep at night, and a private region, ruled
by the queen and centring in the thalamos or
royal bed-chamber. If the new woman were taken
into this “harem,” even if Admetus never
spoke to her, the world outside would surmise the
worst and consider him dishonoured.

P. 66, l. 1148, Be righteous to thy guest, As he would
have thee be.]—­ Does this mean “Go
on being hospitable, as you have been,” or “Learn
after this not to take liberties with other guests”?
It is hard to say.